A group of inmates who are suing the Marion County Sheriff's Department because they believe the department detains inmates for unreasonably — and unconstitutionally — long periods of time has won what could be a major legal decision.

At the heart of the lawsuit is the allegation that the Sheriff's Department waits up to 72 hours to release prisoners who are ordered released, as well as the allegation that the Sheriff relies on a computer system "inadequate for the purposes intended with respect to the timely release of prisoners."

The plaintiffs then filed a petition in the 7th Circuit Court in Chicago seeking permission to appeal the denial of two of those class certifications.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals held that Judge Richard L. Young in the Southern District had erred in denying the class certifications and sent it back to the lower court.

Judge Ilana Rovner in the 7th Circuit wrote: "We do not understand the district court’s decision to hold that the plaintiffs have not established that their injury resulted from a policy or practice, as the defendants suggest; such an argument would be difficult to make, as the determination to process releases through the OMS system certainly appears to fall within our understanding of what constitutes a policy or practice."

From a technical point of view, the case merely deals with class certification and procedure questions, says Jeff Cardella, a criminal procedure professor at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

"As a practical matter, this is a major win," Cardella said, "and likely means that the plaintiffs will be successful in their lawsuit against the Marion County Sheriff's Department."

A spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office told IndyStar that the department does not comment on pending litigation.

The Sheriff's Office is already being challenged in court over its compliance with Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers, which are written requests sent by ICE that ask local police to detain individuals beyond the time when they otherwise should be released – generally a 48-hour period – so the immigration agency can take the individuals into custody. .

Currently, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff John Layton are defending against an ACLU lawsuit, filed in September 2016, over the department's compliance with ICE detainer policies.

In that case, Antonio Lopez-Aguilar was detained as he appeared at the Marion County Traffic Court to answer for a misdemeanor charge that he had operated an automobile without a license.

Once the hearing concluded — without any requirement that he serve jail time for that charge — he was informed by a sergeant that he was being taken into custody until he could be transferred to the custody of ICE.